Minnesota Sports Forum

Camden wrote:

I have Towns, Winslow, Russell, Okafor, Mudiay as my top 5 today.

Winslow's over Okafor now too!? My god. Can we please pull back the reigns on a guy who was a glorified glue guy all year long. I like Winslow, I actually do, but some of you (most of you) are building him up way too much way too early.

longstrangetrip wrote:Outstanding post, lipoli. The Spurs have clearly set themselves apart from other franchises in the three areas of importance:

1) Find 'em
2) Coach 'em up
3) Keep 'em

All three of these are needed for an organization to be consistently elite, as the Spurs have been for a long time. I'm not smart enough to understand whether a star like Leonard is more a product of factor 1 or 2, or some combination of the 2. I tend to think the second factor, "coach 'em up", might be even more significant than finding 'em. How else do you explain why almost every Spur shoots significantly better after they join the Spurs than before? Could anyone have thought that Leonard, who shot 25% on threes at San Diego St. and was never considered a good shooter in high school, would become a 35% 3-point shooter in the pros?

So who are the guys who the Spurs would be looking at this year if they had a high pick like the wolves? Their success with Leonard makes me think they would be taking a hard look at Stanley Johnson as a top 4 pick. None of the pundits are, and he has disappeared from discussion on this board. But he was everything Kawhi Leonard was as a Socal prep and college freshman, times 2. A better defender, better shooter, better ball handler, and proven winner. He's a Spurs kind of guy, but because a couple subpar late season games had the "experts" drop him in the mock drafts, he is no longer being spoon fed to us (and to NBA GM's). I can't help thinking that he is the Leonard in this draft, but because (like so many others) I accept what the experts tell me, he's not in my top 5 (even though he was ranked there most of the year).

Fund managers used to practice the mantra "you never get fired for buying IBM", and the same goes for NBA GM's...you never get fired for drafting who the mocks say you should draft. The winners, though, find Apple before everyone else does.

lipoli390 wrote:
Long - Good point about player development. Like you, I'm not smart enough to know how much of Leonard's success is the result of the Spurs coaching staff versus their front office ability to judge takent. Probably some combination of the two. As for the front office, I liked your investor analogy. I don't know if Stanley Johnson is the next Apple, but I sure hope Flip and his front office cohorts land the draft equivalent of Apple this summer.

monsterpile wrote:Kristaps Porzingis...what are people's thoughts on him? If he can be strong enough to guard PFs man he would fit awesome as a sweet shooting (shoots 3's!!!!) PF with Bazz and Wiggins posting up and Ricky could find him for easy looks. Just a little intruiged by him as a PF assuming we don't land Towns.